Chihana’s Second VP Office Running on Zero Funding Yet Travels Keep Mounting
The Office of the Second Vice-President (OSVP) — created barely weeks ago — is already exposing deep cracks in the Mutharika administration’s governance, accountability, and austerity narrative.
Despite being a constitutionally recognised office, the Second VP’s office has no budget, no vote, and no direct access to public funds. Yet its occupant, Enock Chihana, is criss-crossing the country at a pace that has raised eyebrows, anger, and suspicion among governance advocates.
Principal Secretary for the office, Madalo Nyambose, confirmed in an interview that the OSVP has not received a single kwacha from Treasury because the office was created without a budget line.
“The Office of the Second Vice-President so far has no vote nor is it a cost centre… therefore, the office has not received any funding,” she said.
Instead, Chihana’s office is surviving on logistical support from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) — a stop-gap arrangement that speaks volumes about how unprepared government was when President Peter Mutharika appointed Chihana as Second VP following the September 16 General Election.
But this is where the contradictions pile up.
Government has spent the past months preaching austerity, restricting travel for ministries and departments. Yet Chihana — an office with zero funding — has already made about 15 trips across the Central, Northern, and Southern regions.
Kasungu. Rumphi. Karonga. Chikwawa. Mzuzu. Chitipa. Nkhata Bay.
The travel list reads like a political campaign trail, not the itinerary of an office supposedly operating under strict financial limitations.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa did not mince words, warning that Chihana’s frequent movements “undermine the austerity measures government is trying to enforce.”
Nyambose claims Chihana is using personal resources for some of his activities — a claim that raises more questions than answers.
How sustainable is that? What exactly counts as “personal resources”? And why would an office with no budget undertake such aggressive public engagements?
Stakeholders fear the arrangement blurs lines of accountability, creating space for opaque funding, political misuse of state structures, and potential abuse of OPC logistical support.
Nyambose insists that the OSVP is a delegated office and that Chihana’s interactions with vendors, traditional leaders, and religious groups fall within his mandate.
But critics argue the bigger issue is structural:
How does a constitutionally established high office begin operating without Treasury approval, a budget vote, or clear fiscal guidelines?
The arrangement exposes a government that rushed into creating political positions without doing the basic administrative homework.
Chihana becomes only the second Malawian ever to occupy this position — a role last held by his late father, Chakufwa Chihana, in the early days of multiparty democracy.
Yet today, the office appears more symbolic than functional — existing more for political convenience than administrative necessity, and operating without transparency or financial clarity.
With Parliament now reviewing the national budget, hopes are that funds will be allocated. But even that process raises a hard question:
Why create the office first, then look for funding later?
As MPs debate the matter, Malawians are left wondering whether the Second VP post was crafted to serve national interest — or simply to reward political alliances formed ahead of the 2025 elections.
At a time when government departments cannot travel, fuel budgets are slashed, and public institutions are tightening belts, the optics of an unfunded office touring the country are troubling.
Until government explains how an office with no vote is managing nationwide travel, the OSVP risks becoming a symbol of everything wrong with Malawi’s governance: poor planning, blurred accountability, political appeasement, and selective austerity.
And Malawians deserve answers.
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